[MMM] Set Your Goals High and Don’t Give Up Until You Reach Them

Help wanted!Must be:
5’9″ tall
Good eyesight
Team player
Curious by nature
Good hand-eye coordination
Bilingual
Great public speaker
Quick learner
Multi-tasker
Good with heights
Extremely well educated

Sound like you? Unfortunately, you missed the window for this opportunity.

The Canadian Space Agency has just announced two new astronauts: Joshua Kutryk, who was an experimental test pilot and a fighter pilot for the Canadian Armed Forces, and Jennifer Sidey, who worked as a mechanical engineer, a combustion scientist as well as a lecturer at the Department of Engineering.

Jennifer & Joshua each had a big goal in mind but so did the thousands of other applicants vying for the same exciting opportunity. So what is it that set them apart from the rest? To put the competitive value of such an opportunity into perspective, let us talk about an executive coaching client of mine who is currently a retired astronaut. With over 15,000 people applying to his cohort, if he were to apply for the position himself, his chances of landing that role would be 4/15000.

When he was presented with the decision to pursue this opportunity he could very easily He have taken a passive stance, saying to himself, “Why bother? It’s not practical. Way too competitive. I don’t have a Ph.D. from the best school in the country. I am not a pilot. Too long of a process.”

He didn’t. And neither did Jennifer & Joshua.

I’m glad he didn’t count himself out of the process before it started. He had an incredible journey in that career. I understand that his chances were much more limited than if he wanted a new role as a V.P. of Engineering.

He had the vision, passion, courage, and discipline to pursue this truly out of this world goal.

What about you?

What is your big goal? Even if it doesn’t play out as expected, you will always know with certainty that you pursued it and it wasn’t meant to be. The journey of seeking is never lost. It will result in a new trajectory that may even be more fulfilling than your dream